Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Government Shutdown ENDING! We Explain When & How

Transcript

Government Shutdown ENDING! We Explain When & How · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome.
0:01
Speaker 2: It is Verdic with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with
0:04
Speaker 2: you in this episode will be a dual episode. Nice
0:06
Speaker 2: show in Center Cruise as well here because we're trying
0:10
Speaker 2: to figure out what the hell's going on, just like
0:11
Speaker 2: every other American when it comes to is the government open?
0:15
Speaker 1: Is it closed? Center?
0:17
Speaker 2: As we are doing this ten o'clock Eastern, we're recording
0:20
Speaker 2: on Sunday night. You've just left the Senate for so
0:24
Speaker 2: where the hell are we now? Because there were some
0:26
Speaker 2: reports like the government's reopened, then it's not reopen. We're
0:29
Speaker 2: heading towards reopening.
0:31
Speaker 1: What is right? What's wrong?
0:33
Speaker 3: Well, we have really good news, which is the government
0:35
Speaker 3: is in the process of reopening. It's not going to
0:38
Speaker 3: be reopened on Monday, but we got the votes tonight
0:41
Speaker 3: that will start the process of reopening it. We're going
0:43
Speaker 3: to explain exactly what that means, what the deal, what
0:46
Speaker 3: the deal was, and what the timing is going to
0:49
Speaker 3: be and how that's likely to impact you, whether it
0:53
Speaker 3: is going to a national park or going to the
0:55
Speaker 3: Smithsonian or flying on an airplane, what the timing is
0:58
Speaker 3: likely to be. We're also going to talk to you
1:01
Speaker 3: about a bill that I introduced this past week, the
1:03
Speaker 3: Deporting Fraudster's Bill that is going after illegal immigrants who
1:08
Speaker 3: are fraudulently getting welfare benefits. And right now, fraudulently taking
1:13
Speaker 3: welfare benefits is not a statutory ground for deportation. I'm
1:17
Speaker 3: introducing legislation to change that. We'll explain that all to you.
1:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really incredible.
1:22
Speaker 2: I want to take a moment and talk to you
1:23
Speaker 2: about Hillsdale College and saying, amazing that's happening right now.
1:27
Speaker 2: I am taking a class. I wanted to say it
1:31
Speaker 2: was a refresher course. It's really been so much more
1:34
Speaker 2: than that. And it is about the constitution. Constitution one
1:37
Speaker 2: oh one, and Hillsdale College has done an amazing job
1:41
Speaker 2: of allowing people to continue to learn about this country
1:45
Speaker 2: at their own pace online. Now in a brand new
1:49
Speaker 2: six part documentary series, Hillsdale College professors are now teaching
1:53
Speaker 2: you the religious, political, cultural, and economic ideas that shape
1:58
Speaker 2: a uniquely American cultured during the colonial period. You're gonna
2:02
Speaker 2: learn why the idea of liberty, especially religious liberty, inspired
2:06
Speaker 2: the settlers of America to cross the Atlantic. You're gonna
2:10
Speaker 2: learn how Americans organize local governments to rule and protect themselves,
2:14
Speaker 2: and why America has always been a land where virtue
2:17
Speaker 2: can lead to peace and prosperity.
2:20
Speaker 1: Most of us know that the Declaration of.
2:22
Speaker 2: Independence marks the beginning of America as an independent nation,
2:26
Speaker 2: but this Hillsdale course focuses on the forging of the
2:29
Speaker 2: American character that made the Revolution possible and why it's
2:34
Speaker 2: more important than ever to remember and reclaim that character today.
2:38
Speaker 2: So here's the part that I love the most. Hillsdale
2:41
Speaker 2: College is doing something amazing. They are offering these courses
2:46
Speaker 2: to you guys listening, completely free and it's easy to access.
2:52
Speaker 2: Hillsdale is now offering more than forty other free online courses,
2:56
Speaker 2: just like the Constitution one oh one class I'm taking
2:59
Speaker 2: right now.
3:00
Speaker 1: They of course on C. S.
3:01
Speaker 2: Lewis, the stories of the Book of Genesis, the Rise
3:04
Speaker 2: in the Fall of the Roman Republic, and you can
3:06
Speaker 2: even go deeper on the American founding and the Constitution,
3:10
Speaker 2: all for free. How do you get take the classes
3:13
Speaker 2: for free right now? Go to Hillsdale dot edu slash
3:17
Speaker 2: verdict enroll right now.
3:19
Speaker 1: There's no costs, it's easy to get started.
3:22
Speaker 2: That's Hillsdale dot edu slash verdict to enroll for free
3:28
Speaker 2: Hillsdale dot edu slash verdict and see all the classes,
3:31
Speaker 2: the forty plus classes you can take right.
3:33
Speaker 1: Now for free.
3:35
Speaker 2: All right, So center, there was a lot of excitement
3:38
Speaker 2: earlier Sunday evening. My phone blew up. I'm assuming you
3:41
Speaker 2: were getting the text me. It's like, oh great, the
3:43
Speaker 2: government's wide open again. It's gonna go back to normal.
3:47
Speaker 2: I wish that was true. You just described it as
3:51
Speaker 2: we've got the votes to move forward. Explain the process,
3:55
Speaker 2: because I mean, even on social media it was like
3:58
Speaker 2: the government's reopen.
3:58
Speaker 1: I'm like, not so so fast. That's not how this
4:02
Speaker 1: can work.
4:02
Speaker 2: In fact, they could take almost another week and totally
4:05
Speaker 2: get this thing back to where it needs to be.
4:08
Speaker 3: So look, the good news is we finally have a
4:10
Speaker 3: deal and we got the votes that are necessary to
4:13
Speaker 3: reopen the government. So we've had a shutdown, the Schumer shutdown.
4:17
Speaker 4: For forty days. Yeah, fourteen different times.
4:20
Speaker 3: Fourteen times Republicans have voted to open the government, fourteen
4:24
Speaker 3: times Democrats have voted no, have voted to keep the
4:27
Speaker 3: government shut down. Now, remember, the entire reason that we
4:31
Speaker 3: have a shutdown is because under the Senate rules, you
4:34
Speaker 3: need sixty votes to move to proceed to legislation funding
4:38
Speaker 3: the government. We only have fifty three Republicans. That means
4:42
Speaker 3: we need at least seven Democrats, and unfortunately ran votes
4:46
Speaker 3: no on all of these, So we have fifty two
4:50
Speaker 3: Republicans to fund the government.
4:52
Speaker 4: So we need eight Democrats.
4:54
Speaker 3: The fourteen times we've voted over the last forty days,
4:57
Speaker 3: over and over and over again, we've gotten at most
5:01
Speaker 3: two or three Democrats. Tonight Sunday, it's just a few
5:04
Speaker 3: minutes after ten pm Sunday night, we finally got the
5:08
Speaker 3: eight Democrats we needed. So the Democrats who voted to
5:11
Speaker 3: reopen the government are Durbin, Hassen, King, Cortes, Masto, Cain, Shaheen, Rosen,
5:17
Speaker 3: and Fetterman. Those are the eight we got exactly what
5:20
Speaker 3: we needed. We ended up with sixty votes, not sixty one,
5:24
Speaker 3: so that not in a sink. Every other Democrat voted no.
5:27
Speaker 3: Keep it shut down. But getting eight is important, and
5:31
Speaker 3: there was a substantive deal. But the substantive deal has
5:34
Speaker 3: several pieces. Number one, there's a continuing resolution that runs
5:38
Speaker 3: through January thirtieth. So one thing that was really important
5:42
Speaker 3: to me and to a lot of conservatives was that
5:45
Speaker 3: we not have government funding expire right before Christmas. Often
5:51
Speaker 3: government fundings expires right before Christmas, and they use the
5:54
Speaker 3: desire everyone has to go home to their families for
5:57
Speaker 3: the holidays to twist our arms into passing a really
6:01
Speaker 3: bad bill. So this does not end right before Christmas.
6:04
Speaker 3: The CR instead, the continuing Resolution continues until the end
6:09
Speaker 3: of January. That was significant. We also included three appropriation
6:13
Speaker 3: bills in the deals. Now, these are appropriation bills. There
6:16
Speaker 3: are two ways you can fund the government. You can
6:18
Speaker 3: fund the government through an appropriation bill. There are thirteen
6:21
Speaker 3: different appropriation bills that fund different cabinet agencies in different
6:25
Speaker 3: major programs. Those take sixty votes. That's what's called regular order.
6:31
Speaker 3: That's the way the system is supposed to work. And
6:33
Speaker 3: then you can also fund the government through a continuing
6:37
Speaker 3: resolution also called a CR, that just keeps everything the
6:40
Speaker 3: way it was before and maintains the status quo. We
6:45
Speaker 3: ended up doing a combination of both. So in this
6:48
Speaker 3: deal we have number one the ag approach, So that's
6:52
Speaker 3: the agriculture appropriation that includes the funds that farmers rely on,
6:56
Speaker 3: but it also importantly includes snap It includes food food stamps.
7:00
Speaker 3: So yeah, one of the consequences of the shutdown was
7:03
Speaker 3: the funding for food stamps went away. With this appropriation bill,
7:08
Speaker 3: we will fund the food stamps for an entire year,
7:11
Speaker 3: so that will be taken off the table.
7:12
Speaker 2: And by the way, let's be very clear about that,
7:15
Speaker 2: Republicans tried to make sure that even with the government shutdown,
7:20
Speaker 2: that snap benefits were continuing and were not stopped. Democrats
7:26
Speaker 2: made damn sure that people did not get their food
7:29
Speaker 2: stamp benefits during the forty day the longest shut down
7:31
Speaker 2: in American history. They did that because they thought it
7:34
Speaker 2: was leveraged to hurt the poorest among us in America,
7:38
Speaker 2: and that would then give them leverage to get more
7:40
Speaker 2: of the port rail things they wanted for the Democratic
7:42
Speaker 2: programs and initiatives, and they didn't care if you couldn't
7:45
Speaker 2: feed your kids over the last forty days.
7:48
Speaker 3: So understand that was the entire Democrat strategy is maximize
7:52
Speaker 3: the pain on the American people, because the more pain
7:55
Speaker 3: that they could inflict, they were counting on the media
7:58
Speaker 3: to be dishonest and blame it all on Trump. And
8:00
Speaker 3: so repeatedly this past week, I went back and forth
8:03
Speaker 3: with Democrats repeatedly, and their talking points were very simple.
8:06
Speaker 3: They would say, well, you have a Republican president, Republican Senate,
8:09
Speaker 3: Republican House. The shutdown is their fault, and that was it.
8:13
Speaker 3: And they were counting on the dishonest corporate media to
8:17
Speaker 3: tell that lie what they omitted. And actually I talked
8:21
Speaker 3: about this just this weekend. I spoke on the Senate Florida.
8:24
Speaker 3: I said, look, whenever anyone takes an oath to testify
8:28
Speaker 3: in court, that they put their hand on the Bible
8:31
Speaker 3: and they pledged to tell the truth, the whole truth,
8:33
Speaker 3: and nothing but the truth. Well, the Democrats saying that
8:36
Speaker 3: they're failing part number two, the whole truth, because it
8:38
Speaker 3: is true we have a Republican president, House and Senate.
8:40
Speaker 3: What they're ignoring is the fact that it requires sixty
8:43
Speaker 3: votes and it is the Democrats who forced the shut
8:46
Speaker 3: down because they're the ones that are not voting to
8:48
Speaker 3: keep the government open. This package, we took three appropriations bills,
8:53
Speaker 3: the AG Appropriation Bill which is farmers, ranchers and food stamps,
8:58
Speaker 3: the Military Construction and the VA Bill so that funds
9:02
Speaker 3: funds our veterans and also gives funds for military construction
9:05
Speaker 3: projects across the country. And then the Legislature Bill, which,
9:10
Speaker 3: among other things, we increase the funding for security for
9:13
Speaker 3: members of Congress. Given the political violence we see, I
9:16
Speaker 3: think that's very important to have more funds to increase
9:19
Speaker 3: security on both sides of the aisle.
9:22
Speaker 4: So that package.
9:23
Speaker 3: Those are three appropriation bills that were bipartisan. The Democrats
9:27
Speaker 3: had a party in that were passed along with the
9:31
Speaker 3: thirty day CR or not thirty day the CR to
9:35
Speaker 3: January thirtieth.
9:36
Speaker 1: Three, Henry thirtieth.
9:37
Speaker 4: Yeah.
9:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, so all of that is what we got sixty
9:42
Speaker 3: votes for tonight. Now what does that mean tomorrow morning?
9:45
Speaker 3: Does that mean the government is opened Monday morning? Unfortunately no.
9:49
Speaker 2: FINT people are frustrated because they think, well, you guys
9:52
Speaker 2: shut it down quickly, then why can't you just reopen
9:55
Speaker 2: it quickly?
9:56
Speaker 1: And this is how the sausage is made.
9:58
Speaker 2: And that's why I think there's some misc communication on
10:00
Speaker 2: Sunday night about oh, the government's like open up. I
10:03
Speaker 2: mean there was major news out it's like government opening up,
10:06
Speaker 2: the votes to have it, and they're thinking, all right, well,
10:08
Speaker 2: if I'm flying out Monday or Monday afternoon or Tuesday, yeah,
10:12
Speaker 2: there should be no problems at the airport. That's also
10:15
Speaker 2: not true. I want to be very clear about that.
10:18
Speaker 3: Look, if the Democrats want to be full obstructionist, they
10:22
Speaker 3: could delay opening the government as late as Friday of
10:25
Speaker 3: this week. Because there are a series of votes we
10:29
Speaker 3: have to take in. Under the Senate rules, they can
10:32
Speaker 3: delay thing. They have a right to an intervening day
10:34
Speaker 3: between one voter and another. They can delay things for
10:37
Speaker 3: thirty hours, and so they could drag it out even
10:41
Speaker 3: though we have the sixty votes. They could drag it
10:44
Speaker 3: out as late as Friday. My guess is they'll drag
10:47
Speaker 3: it out till Monday or Tuesday. My best guess is
10:52
Speaker 3: the government will open up Tuesday or Wednesday. But we
10:55
Speaker 3: really are dealing with Look the Bernie Sanders is of
10:58
Speaker 3: the world. By the way, Chuck Schumer voted no, because
11:00
Speaker 3: the whole point of this was for him to tell
11:03
Speaker 3: the crazy left he still hates Donald Trump. Now, I
11:07
Speaker 3: don't think these eight Democrats would have voted yes without
11:10
Speaker 3: Schumer blessing their voting yes. So this was always going
11:14
Speaker 3: to end this one.
11:14
Speaker 2: I was going to ask you, so getting to the
11:16
Speaker 2: perfect number of eight, and again, this is how the
11:20
Speaker 2: sausage is made. So let's talk about behind the scenes.
11:23
Speaker 2: You guys, the Republicans have been meeting right behind the scenes.
11:26
Speaker 2: You have your normal lunches that you have in your
11:28
Speaker 2: other meetings, And I see you guys on the four
11:30
Speaker 2: of the Senate talking and you're outside the Senate. I
11:32
Speaker 2: mean Democrats are doing the same thing when they decide
11:36
Speaker 2: who is in the eight to vote yes? Is that
11:40
Speaker 2: strategic based on who needs cover when they're running for office?
11:43
Speaker 1: Is that? I mean?
11:44
Speaker 2: There's some like Fetterman that clearly were leaders on this,
11:46
Speaker 2: just saying I think it's wrong to hold the American
11:49
Speaker 2: be a hostage.
11:49
Speaker 1: I'm voting to open this thing up.
11:51
Speaker 2: How do they decide on the exact eight And is
11:55
Speaker 2: it literally to the point where they're like, all right,
11:56
Speaker 2: we're gonna only give eight, and you got to make
11:59
Speaker 2: your arm to us why you should be in the
12:02
Speaker 2: eight and we'll give you that blessing.
12:04
Speaker 1: How does that work?
12:06
Speaker 4: So I don't know for sure.
12:08
Speaker 3: I will say there were a number of Republicans who
12:11
Speaker 3: were surprised we did not get more than eight. So
12:13
Speaker 3: there were other Democrats who were telling Republicans privately they
12:16
Speaker 3: were going to vote yes to open the government. People
12:19
Speaker 3: like John Ossoff who's got He's the most vulnerable Democrat
12:22
Speaker 3: running for reelection in Georgia. He just voted the fifteenth
12:26
Speaker 3: time to keep the government shut down, you know Georgia.
12:30
Speaker 3: By the way, Raphael Warnock, the other Georgia senator, did
12:33
Speaker 3: as well. We actually thought there was a real possibility
12:36
Speaker 3: they would both vote tonight to open the government. I
12:40
Speaker 3: don't know what Osof's calculus was. Warnock will often vote
12:43
Speaker 3: with Osof to give him some political coverage, so we
12:46
Speaker 3: figured that they would go They would go either both
12:49
Speaker 3: yes or both no. They both voted to keep the
12:51
Speaker 3: government shut down.
12:53
Speaker 2: What is the chances to guys like that on Tuesday
12:55
Speaker 2: Wednesday vote yes? After they say all right, well fine,
12:59
Speaker 2: we're already going to be there. Does that change you
13:01
Speaker 2: think that eight number? Could that change attends over or
13:04
Speaker 2: is it pretty much as eight no?
13:06
Speaker 3: I could easily see on a subsequent vote some additional Democrats,
13:10
Speaker 3: Patty Murray, who is the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee,
13:15
Speaker 3: a number of Republicans believe she was going to vote yes.
13:18
Speaker 3: I mentioned we just were going to pass three appropriation bills.
13:21
Speaker 3: She played a major hand in drafting those three appropriation bills,
13:25
Speaker 3: and so for appropriators. Look, when Chuck Schumer and the
13:29
Speaker 3: Democrats had the majority, do you know how many appropriation
13:32
Speaker 3: bills they passed into law?
13:33
Speaker 1: How many?
13:34
Speaker 4: Zero?
13:35
Speaker 3: The process was broken, They didn't do appropriations. It's our
13:40
Speaker 3: hope to actually go through the process, to have amendments,
13:43
Speaker 3: to negotiate it. And that's what these three bills are doing.
13:48
Speaker 3: And yet the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee voted no.
13:52
Speaker 3: Chris Coons, who is widely seen as one of the
13:55
Speaker 3: more moderate Democrats, he voted to keep the government shut down.
14:00
Speaker 3: Alyssa Slotkin from Michigan. Look, Michigan's a purple state. She
14:04
Speaker 3: voted to keep the government shut down. Gary Peters, also
14:07
Speaker 3: from Michigan, retiring, he voted to keep the government to
14:10
Speaker 3: shut down. So there were another half dozen or so
14:14
Speaker 3: that a lot of folks thought we would have a
14:16
Speaker 3: chance at getting their votes, and we did not.
14:19
Speaker 2: So when you don't get those votes, we move forward.
14:21
Speaker 2: You said this thing could end up to Friday. You're
14:25
Speaker 2: guessing probably Tuesday, Wednesday the government reopens.
14:28
Speaker 1: How many more votes after tonight?
14:31
Speaker 2: Again, for people that are listening, we're doing this Sunday
14:33
Speaker 2: night at ten to fifteen right now in DC. How
14:37
Speaker 2: many people are how many votes will it take starting
14:42
Speaker 2: now to get the government actually reopened.
14:44
Speaker 3: We need to continue to hold sixty, but we're going
14:48
Speaker 3: to the underlying terms of the deal have been cut.
14:50
Speaker 3: So I don't expect any of the eight who just
14:52
Speaker 3: voted yes to flip. So I think we've got our sixty.
14:56
Speaker 3: But the remaining Democrats can just drag things out and
15:00
Speaker 3: make it painful. I hope they don't. I actually pulled
15:03
Speaker 3: Dick Durbin aside. Durbin is retiring, and I mentioned I
15:08
Speaker 3: always thought this was going to end with retiring Democrats
15:10
Speaker 3: voting to open the government. Durbin did so. Now, look
15:13
Speaker 3: he's the number two in leadership among the Democrats. He's
15:17
Speaker 3: Chuck Schumer's right hand buddy's retiring. I told Dick tonight,
15:21
Speaker 3: I said, look, we've got sixty now. It sure would
15:25
Speaker 3: be nice if like you guys, didn't drag this out
15:27
Speaker 3: unnecessarily till Friday, and just the identical outcome will happen,
15:31
Speaker 3: and it just is more painful for everybody. I think
15:35
Speaker 3: there are a lot of Democrats who feel that way.
15:37
Speaker 3: It's why I think we'll end Tuesday or Wednesday.
15:41
Speaker 4: But who the heck knows.
15:42
Speaker 3: Now, there's another element of this deal that's getting some
15:45
Speaker 3: attention online, which is a commitment to reverse the riffs,
15:50
Speaker 3: the reductions and forces that happened during the shutdown. And
15:54
Speaker 3: there's some folks online saying, you guys, cave, this is terrible.
15:58
Speaker 3: That was was an off that President Trump made, I
16:02
Speaker 3: think like two weeks ago to the Democrats. That has
16:04
Speaker 3: been on the table for them a long long time,
16:07
Speaker 3: and the White House made the decision, Okay, if you
16:09
Speaker 3: guys open the government, we agree, we'll offer you that
16:13
Speaker 3: will reverse those rifts. So that was in the deal,
16:16
Speaker 3: but it was a deal that came from the White
16:17
Speaker 3: House that we just agreed. Okay, if that's if those
16:20
Speaker 3: are the terms that the President wants to cut, we'll
16:22
Speaker 3: we'll back up the president.
16:24
Speaker 2: So you go into Monday, you're going to have more
16:27
Speaker 2: meetings throughout the day, or explain to me Monday what
16:30
Speaker 2: that looks like.
16:31
Speaker 3: We're anticipating the first vote probably around noon. And as
16:34
Speaker 3: I said that, there could be we could have done
16:37
Speaker 3: it all tonight if the Democrats had agreed to In
16:40
Speaker 3: the Senate, you can do anything by unanimous consent, and
16:44
Speaker 3: so if they wanted to open the government tonight. They
16:46
Speaker 3: could have just consented to do one vote and then
16:48
Speaker 3: do the other one next to the other one next,
16:49
Speaker 3: the other one next, and we'd be done.
16:51
Speaker 2: Like you can do that, you know, literally, instead of
16:53
Speaker 2: us recording right now, you guys could actually be voting
16:58
Speaker 2: and this could have all been Monday morning. The government
17:00
Speaker 2: is open for business. All the fa guys are back
17:04
Speaker 2: to normal, everybody's getting paid, and they're like, now, SCREWT,
17:06
Speaker 2: will just wait a few more days. So there's the
17:09
Speaker 2: flying home, right, I mean, you're not flying home tonight,
17:11
Speaker 2: are you.
17:11
Speaker 4: Nope?
17:11
Speaker 3: No, I'm in DC. I didn't see my family this weekend.
17:15
Speaker 3: I would have loved to have seen my kids. I didn't.
17:18
Speaker 3: I've spent most of the time just sitting here waiting
17:21
Speaker 3: for Democrats to finally agree to cut a deal. But
17:27
Speaker 3: it was striking. We could have done it tonight. But
17:31
Speaker 3: to do that you need unanimous consent. That means you
17:34
Speaker 3: don't need sixty you need one hundred. That means one
17:37
Speaker 3: person can object and say no, drag it out. I
17:41
Speaker 3: want to burn more time. I want to burn more time.
17:44
Speaker 3: And you have people like Bernie Sanders, you have all
17:48
Speaker 3: the Democrats who are running for president that want to
17:50
Speaker 3: want a spectacle, and so that if they really decide
17:55
Speaker 3: to be just just fully obstructionist, they could drag it
18:00
Speaker 3: as late as Friday.
18:01
Speaker 1: All right.
18:02
Speaker 2: So one other question is this is unfolding when the
18:05
Speaker 2: government opens back up, and let's just use a hypothetical
18:09
Speaker 2: of Wednesday, all right, Wednesday the government opens up, does
18:12
Speaker 2: that mean that instantly the system is going to go
18:16
Speaker 2: back to normal. I'm saying this to people traveling. Yeah,
18:19
Speaker 2: you and I've traveled a lot. We've started to see
18:21
Speaker 2: the breakdown of of air traffic control and of having
18:26
Speaker 2: to cancel flights. I've witnessed it traveling internationally and domestically
18:30
Speaker 2: over the last couple of days. You've done it as well.
18:33
Speaker 2: And so when it opens back up, is that like
18:36
Speaker 2: an instant fix or is that going to take a
18:38
Speaker 2: couple of days to cycle through the system as well?
18:40
Speaker 2: What does travel look like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
18:45
Speaker 3: Look at least travel Monday and Monday and Tuesday, I
18:48
Speaker 3: would expect still really significant delays and really significant cancelations.
18:52
Speaker 3: The reason for those delays and those cancelations. We have
18:58
Speaker 3: roughly fifty thousand TSA agents all across the country.
19:02
Speaker 4: Many of them are going into work. None of them
19:05
Speaker 4: are being paid.
19:05
Speaker 3: They all missed their last paycheck, didn't get their last paycheck.
19:09
Speaker 3: We have roughly fourteen thousand air traffic controllers. Many of
19:13
Speaker 3: them are going into work, none of them are getting paid.
19:16
Speaker 3: They all missed their last paycheck. Listen if you're a
19:18
Speaker 3: TSA agent, if you're an air traffic controller, typical TSA
19:22
Speaker 3: agent or air traffic controller doesn't have a deep reservoir
19:26
Speaker 3: of savings. I mean, they're under real stress right now.
19:29
Speaker 3: How do I pay my mortgage, how do I pay
19:31
Speaker 3: my rent? How do I pay my bills? And so
19:33
Speaker 3: what is happening with both TSA agents and controllers. They're
19:37
Speaker 3: calling in sick, they're just not showing up, say summer,
19:40
Speaker 3: coming into work. The problem is in New York City
19:44
Speaker 3: on Halloween Day, roughly eighty percent of the controllers called
19:48
Speaker 3: in sick and didn't show up to work. That's Chuck
19:49
Speaker 3: Schumer's hometown, by the way. And so we're seeing with TSA.
19:56
Speaker 3: You had Monday a week ago, the lines in the
19:58
Speaker 3: Houston Bush Airport were two and a half to three
20:00
Speaker 3: hours line long to get through security because they were
20:04
Speaker 3: so short staffed on TSA agents, they didn't have enough
20:07
Speaker 3: to move people through security. So even if the government
20:11
Speaker 3: opens up tomorrow, you're dealing with the independent decisions of
20:14
Speaker 3: fifty thousand TSA agents and fourteen thousand controllers when they
20:19
Speaker 3: come back to work. And the reason that the FAA
20:22
Speaker 3: has mandated ten percent of flights be canceled is they're
20:26
Speaker 3: looking at the data and seeing that these short staffed
20:29
Speaker 3: air traffic controllers there's an increased risk to safety. So
20:32
Speaker 3: they're saying, all right, if we don't have full staffing,
20:35
Speaker 3: we got to reduce the number of flights. So in
20:38
Speaker 3: a week, do I expect things to go back to normal? Yes,
20:42
Speaker 3: a week after things open up, but it could easily
20:45
Speaker 3: take several days for people to say, Okay, I'm going
20:48
Speaker 3: to come back into work now. That doesn't happen automatically
20:52
Speaker 3: just by flipping a switch.
20:53
Speaker 2: So what you're basically telling me is this week, when
20:56
Speaker 2: I'm flying, and when you're flying, and so many others
20:59
Speaker 2: that listen to this show flying, we're gonna be dealing
21:01
Speaker 2: with this type of chaos because the Democrats decided not
21:05
Speaker 2: to do their job, even while doing their job on
21:07
Speaker 2: Sunday night, Right now, yes.
21:09
Speaker 3: And by the way, they could have agreed to open
21:12
Speaker 3: it all up tonight, that they could have given consent,
21:17
Speaker 3: said okay, you've got a deal, let's move ahead. And
21:20
Speaker 3: it's now just the obstructionist who you know, if your
21:23
Speaker 3: flight is canceled tomorrow, you can thank Chuck Schumer and
21:26
Speaker 3: every Democrat senator running for president who's trying to show
21:29
Speaker 3: off to the crazy left. But we will get it
21:32
Speaker 3: open now, but it will take It'll take a few
21:36
Speaker 3: more days at a minimum.
21:38
Speaker 1: All right.
21:38
Speaker 2: So let's move to another issue in this shutdown, and
21:41
Speaker 2: there's been some confusion over it. There's been a lot
21:43
Speaker 2: of fighting over it. It deals with Obamacare. Also knows
21:46
Speaker 2: the Affordable Care Act. Democrats decided, and this is some
21:50
Speaker 2: of the history that I do think we need to
21:52
Speaker 2: now explain because there's been so much of a political
21:55
Speaker 2: football on this one. That they purposely designed for the
22:00
Speaker 2: subsidies which make Obamacare seem cheaper than it is, even
22:04
Speaker 2: though your tax dollars are paying for the subsidies to
22:07
Speaker 2: subsidize people's health insurance. They designed it purposely to expire now,
22:14
Speaker 2: and that was something that was done by design. I'm
22:17
Speaker 2: assuming for this type of fight is am I wrong
22:19
Speaker 2: and explain what's happening with Obamacare now and moving forward.
22:24
Speaker 3: Well, look, the other thing Democrats talked about and they
22:27
Speaker 3: claimed they were fighting the shutdown for, was to extend Obamacare.
22:32
Speaker 4: And in particular during.
22:33
Speaker 3: COVID, when the Democrats had control of the House and
22:37
Speaker 3: the Senate. In the White House, they passed massive subsidies
22:41
Speaker 3: that went straight to giant insurance companies, went to the
22:44
Speaker 3: didn't go to the people, didn't go to you, but
22:46
Speaker 3: went to insurance companies, roughly fifty billion dollars worth of subsidies,
22:51
Speaker 3: just huge corporate welfare. And that corporate welfare to the
22:54
Speaker 3: insurance companies expires the end of December. And so part
22:59
Speaker 3: of this deal is Republicans agreed we will have a
23:03
Speaker 3: vote on those subsidies the first week of December. Now,
23:07
Speaker 3: by the way, Republicans offered them that we would schedule
23:10
Speaker 3: that vote forty days ago, so they've had that on
23:12
Speaker 3: the table for forty days. But we said at the beginning, sure,
23:17
Speaker 3: we'll give you a vote. They're going to lose that vote.
23:19
Speaker 3: They know they're going to lose that vote, but we said,
23:20
Speaker 3: we'll give you that vote.
23:23
Speaker 4: And so we agreed to have that vote. Now what's
23:26
Speaker 4: the answer?
23:27
Speaker 3: And this is where I want to take folks a
23:28
Speaker 3: little bit behind the scenes to some of the sausage making.
23:32
Speaker 4: So most of the Senate was in DC all weekend.
23:36
Speaker 3: We'd all planned to be back home and had many
23:38
Speaker 3: people had fundraisers at political events or family events, and
23:41
Speaker 3: we missed most of them just staying here. So Friday
23:46
Speaker 3: night I invited a dozen senators out to dinner, and
23:50
Speaker 3: so we went to a local restaurant and got a
23:51
Speaker 3: room together and had a great dinner. And we're laughing
23:55
Speaker 3: and talking and strategizing and saying, look are the Democrats
23:58
Speaker 3: going to move? So in that dinner, we decided to
24:02
Speaker 3: call President Trump. So we called President Trump, got him
24:06
Speaker 3: on the cell phone, and the president he was in
24:09
Speaker 3: a good mood, but he was he was expressing his
24:11
Speaker 3: views emphatically as he always does.
24:15
Speaker 1: Yeah.
24:15
Speaker 2: And by the way, for people I've ever done a
24:17
Speaker 2: phone call, like if you've never gotten to do this,
24:19
Speaker 2: he does not ever hold back when you're talking about
24:21
Speaker 2: the phone. I'm not a single phone call. You've had
24:24
Speaker 2: a lot more than I have. But when I've had
24:26
Speaker 2: phone calls with him, whether it was in sixteen to
24:29
Speaker 2: twenty or now forward like he does not hold back
24:33
Speaker 2: at all. When you're on the cell phone on speakerphone as.
24:35
Speaker 4: Well, he does not.
24:37
Speaker 3: So one of the things we asked of him Friday night,
24:39
Speaker 3: we said, listen, in this battle with the Democrats over Obamacare,
24:43
Speaker 3: Obamacare's failing. It's a bad program. And if you go back,
24:46
Speaker 3: go back to twenty thirteen. Twenty thirteen, when I did
24:49
Speaker 3: a filibuster against Obamacare, I said, at the time, if
24:52
Speaker 3: you remember, you remember, Barack Obama promised the American people
24:55
Speaker 3: Obamacare would would cut the average families premiums by twenty
24:59
Speaker 3: five year.
25:00
Speaker 4: Ye, that was a lie, And in.
25:02
Speaker 3: Fact they skyrocketed at the time, five thousand a year.
25:06
Speaker 3: They've skyrocketed a lot more than that. Even the Washington
25:10
Speaker 3: Post has now admitted the editorial page the Affordable Care Act,
25:13
Speaker 3: which is the misleading name of Obamacare, did not make
25:16
Speaker 3: healthcare more affordable. It caused premiums to skyrocket. So when
25:21
Speaker 3: we had Trump on the phone, we said, look, it
25:23
Speaker 3: would really help if you made the case that what
25:26
Speaker 3: Democrats are fighting for is these massive multi billion dollar
25:30
Speaker 3: corporate welfare payoffs to the health insurance companies. Instead of
25:35
Speaker 3: empowering consumers, and look, we want a lower prices. And
25:39
Speaker 3: so we said, in particular, it would really help if
25:42
Speaker 3: you would send a truth and Trump said, great, come
25:47
Speaker 3: up with something. And so I will tell you what
25:49
Speaker 3: the President sent. I had a lot of input in this,
25:52
Speaker 3: and here's what he put out. President Trump said, Democrats
25:57
Speaker 3: claimed to be working for quote the little guy driving
26:00
Speaker 3: down your health insurance. But the and the rest of
26:04
Speaker 3: this is in all caps. Obamacare scam goes straight to
26:08
Speaker 3: their best friends in the insurance industry. They are making
26:11
Speaker 3: a killing while health coverage only gets worse. If Democrats
26:17
Speaker 3: get their way again, they're in for another huge payday
26:23
Speaker 3: at the expense of the American people.
26:26
Speaker 4: No deal. In all caps.
26:28
Speaker 3: Republicans should give money directly to your personal health savings
26:34
Speaker 3: accounts all in caps that I expanded in our great, big,
26:37
Speaker 3: beautiful bill. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Now,
26:40
Speaker 3: this is really important because if you want a really strong,
26:45
Speaker 3: principled conservative reform to health insurance, expanding health savings accounts
26:52
Speaker 3: so that you give you the consumer, you the patient,
26:54
Speaker 3: more control and instead of sending money to the insurance companies,
26:58
Speaker 3: send it straight to people's health savings accounts, so you
27:02
Speaker 3: can spend it on premiums.
27:03
Speaker 4: You can spend it on deductibles.
27:04
Speaker 3: You can spend it on healthcare that expands competition and
27:08
Speaker 3: empowers patients that at lowers prices. The President leaning in
27:12
Speaker 3: with this tweet really helps in this political battle we'll
27:17
Speaker 3: have over the next six weeks because the outcome he's
27:21
Speaker 3: advocating for is something I've advocated for a long time,
27:24
Speaker 3: and that was a direct result of that dinner on
27:28
Speaker 3: Friday night where we got him on the phone.
27:30
Speaker 2: You know, there's one interesting thing that's coming out this
27:32
Speaker 2: first year of Trump being back in office. It is
27:36
Speaker 2: really empowering the American people, whether it is the accounts
27:40
Speaker 2: you've talked about, whether it's the Trump accounts that are
27:43
Speaker 2: going to be coming in this next year that you
27:45
Speaker 2: guys pass to give kids the opportunity to save money
27:49
Speaker 2: and to be able to grow accounts and to build
27:51
Speaker 2: wealth over their lifetime. Like, there is a lot of
27:55
Speaker 2: personal growth and personal excitement that it's Trump is get
28:00
Speaker 2: the government out of your life.
28:01
Speaker 1: You can do better without it. We want to help
28:04
Speaker 1: you do that. And then the.
28:05
Speaker 2: Democrats like no, no, no, no, no, Mandani's and others usually
28:08
Speaker 2: have no control of your life. We want to run
28:11
Speaker 2: the whole damn show from birth to death. Just trust
28:15
Speaker 2: the US government to be your daddy or your mommy,
28:18
Speaker 2: are both. And that's exactly the difference between the Republicans
28:22
Speaker 2: and Democrats right now.
28:24
Speaker 3: Look at it's a fundamental divide. As you noted, we
28:27
Speaker 3: passed the Trump accounts. As you know well, I wrote
28:29
Speaker 3: that legislation. This has been a major theme that I've
28:34
Speaker 3: been fighting for since the first day I got elected
28:36
Speaker 3: to the Senate. And whether you're talking about hell savings accounts,
28:39
Speaker 3: whether you're talking about Trump accounts that are essentially four
28:44
Speaker 3: A one CA savings accounts for kids, or whether you're
28:46
Speaker 3: talking about school choice and getting tax credits, the unifying
28:50
Speaker 3: theme of all of those is individual choice, empowering you
28:55
Speaker 3: the individual rather than government competition and and giving you control.
29:03
Speaker 3: That is the fundamental difference between left and right. And
29:05
Speaker 3: President Trump has been a great partner in this, and
29:07
Speaker 3: I'll tell you as a part of his tweet, he
29:10
Speaker 3: sent out a chart, a chart which which I had
29:14
Speaker 3: sent him, but I want you to see the chart.
29:16
Speaker 3: We're going to put it up on YouTube for anyone
29:19
Speaker 3: that's watching on YouTube. But it goes through the major
29:24
Speaker 3: healthcare companies their stock performance since Obamacare pass I'm going
29:30
Speaker 3: to walk through them.
29:31
Speaker 4: Etna.
29:33
Speaker 3: Obamacare March twenty ten is when it passed. Etna's stock
29:37
Speaker 3: stock price was thirty dollars and fifty cents. Today it's
29:40
Speaker 3: two hundred and twelve dollars, so it's increased five hundred
29:43
Speaker 3: and ninety five percent. Since Obamacare passed. Senteen Its stock
29:48
Speaker 3: has increased six hundred and four percent, Molina its stock
29:53
Speaker 3: has increased eight hundred and fifty nine percent, Humana Its
29:57
Speaker 3: stock has increased four hundred and ninety percent. Ends Anthem
30:01
Speaker 3: Elevance Health Its stock has increased four hundred and fourteen percent,
30:06
Speaker 3: Signa Its stock has increased eight eight hundred and twenty
30:11
Speaker 3: two percent, and United Health Group. When Obamacare passed, United
30:16
Speaker 3: health stock was twenty five dollars and sixty six cents.
30:20
Speaker 3: Today November twenty twenty five, it is three hundred and
30:24
Speaker 3: twenty seven dollars and seventy four cents. That is at
30:26
Speaker 3: one thousand, one hundred and seventy seven percent increase.
30:30
Speaker 4: That's what Obamacare did.
30:32
Speaker 3: It massively increased the profits of the health insurance companies.
30:35
Speaker 3: By the way, those health insurance companies overwhelmingly give to Democrats.
30:39
Speaker 3: They give to Chuck Schumer, they give to Keing, Jeffries
30:42
Speaker 3: and the Democrats because they recognize when Democrats are in power,
30:46
Speaker 3: their profits go through the roof and the American people's
30:48
Speaker 3: premium skyrocket. What are the Democrats say they wanted to
30:52
Speaker 3: do in this shutdown? Give fifty billion dollars to those
30:55
Speaker 3: same health insurance companies who profits have skyrocket. And it's
30:59
Speaker 3: why with the pre residents said is so important. No,
31:02
Speaker 3: we're not going to give money to health insurance companies. Instead,
31:05
Speaker 3: we're going to expand health savings accounts so you, the
31:07
Speaker 3: individual has control over your own healthcare.
31:10
Speaker 2: For the last several weeks, you've heard me talk with
31:13
Speaker 2: Josherrard at Berna and tell stories about people just like
31:16
Speaker 2: you and I and how they've used their burn A
31:18
Speaker 2: launcher protect themselves and their families. Now, if you don't
31:22
Speaker 2: know what a burna is, it is a handheld pistol
31:24
Speaker 2: that fires both kinetic rounds and chemical irritants to separate
31:28
Speaker 2: you from an attacker.
31:29
Speaker 1: And it's truly amazing. Now Josh is back today to.
31:32
Speaker 2: Share a story about a store owner and how a
31:35
Speaker 2: Berner launcher could have really come in handy.
31:37
Speaker 5: Yes, So in Seattle, the owner of local small business
31:40
Speaker 5: decided to have a sidewalk sale to engage more directly
31:43
Speaker 5: with her community. Well, today was going great when a
31:46
Speaker 5: male walking down the middle of the street could be
31:48
Speaker 5: seen yelling, streaming, and hitting passing cars. This man was
31:52
Speaker 5: clearly suffering from an acute mental episode when he then
31:55
Speaker 5: approached the store owner began threatening her. After several failed
31:59
Speaker 5: attempts at escalating the situation, the woman ultimately tried to
32:02
Speaker 5: go back into the store to try to get to safety,
32:05
Speaker 5: and it was then that the deranged man yelled that
32:07
Speaker 5: he was going to gouge out her eyes and then
32:09
Speaker 5: grabbed her, slammed her to the ground, and begin choking her.
32:13
Speaker 5: It was only due to several good Samaritans that jumped
32:16
Speaker 5: in to pull him off of her that probably saved
32:19
Speaker 5: your life.
32:20
Speaker 2: You know, this is a growing trend. Unfortunately, mental health
32:23
Speaker 2: is a serious issue and in areas where the larger
32:26
Speaker 2: homeless populations, these individuals affected by this can really get violent.
32:31
Speaker 2: Could BURNI still be effective in this case?
32:34
Speaker 5: Absolutely? You know, mental health is striking populations all over America,
32:38
Speaker 5: and those with mental health issues that also have substance
32:42
Speaker 5: of abuse issues are over eleven hundred times more likely
32:45
Speaker 5: to commit violent crime. And the problem is you never
32:48
Speaker 5: know when that may happen. Berna, especially used with our
32:51
Speaker 5: chemical agent projectiles, will incapacitate even those suffering from those
32:55
Speaker 5: acute mental episodes. So Burne is a great tool to
32:58
Speaker 5: use when you absolutely have no idea that you may
33:00
Speaker 5: need it.
33:01
Speaker 2: If you want to find out more about burna can
33:03
Speaker 2: help you or your family members. It's a great gift
33:06
Speaker 2: for the holidays coming for someone you want to help protect.
33:09
Speaker 2: Go to Burna by RNA dot com. That's Burnaby RNA
33:14
Speaker 2: dot com, burna dot com. Senator, I also want to
33:18
Speaker 2: get a little preview of something that you're working on.
33:21
Speaker 2: We're going to do a more expansive show on this,
33:23
Speaker 2: but it's important that people know that even while the
33:26
Speaker 2: government has been shut down, you have been working very
33:29
Speaker 2: hard on other things. One of those things is you've
33:32
Speaker 2: now introduced the Quote Deporting Fraudsters Act of twenty twenty five,
33:38
Speaker 2: and it deals with snap and public benefits abuses that
33:42
Speaker 2: is costing the American people millions and millions of dollars.
33:46
Speaker 2: Give us a little preview of this so people know
33:48
Speaker 2: what's been going on.
33:50
Speaker 4: Look, this is a very simple bill.
33:51
Speaker 3: It is an astonishing fact that right now welfare fraud,
33:55
Speaker 3: fraudulently taking government assistance benefits is not a deportable effe
34:00
Speaker 3: events under the immigration laws. This law will change that
34:03
Speaker 3: and make it a deportable offense. Let me give you
34:05
Speaker 3: some basic statistics. Forty eight percent of households headed by
34:10
Speaker 3: illegal immigrants received food related welfare benefits forty eight percent
34:15
Speaker 3: nearly half specifically SNAP. A CIS analysis found that thirty
34:20
Speaker 3: one percent of illegal alien households with children draw SNAP benefits.
34:26
Speaker 3: One in five households getting WICIC Women's Infants and Children
34:31
Speaker 3: or SNAP is headed by a non citizen, and ninety
34:34
Speaker 3: six percent of the children in those households are US
34:38
Speaker 3: but born, showing how illegal aliens exploit child based eligibility
34:43
Speaker 3: to access benefits indirectly.
34:45
Speaker 4: The US Department of Agriculture reports.
34:48
Speaker 3: One point seventy six million non citizens on SNAP in
34:54
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three. That is roughly three hundred and twelve
34:59
Speaker 3: million dollars in ten pair funds. In twenty twelve or
35:03
Speaker 3: not twenty twelve, rather twenty twenty two, it was one
35:05
Speaker 3: point five million recipients that cost two hundred and twenty
35:08
Speaker 3: two million.
35:10
Speaker 4: Fraud is rampant.
35:12
Speaker 3: For example, in twenty twenty four, one hundred and twenty
35:15
Speaker 3: six point eight million dollars was stolen from EBT cards.
35:19
Speaker 3: In Texas, three point seven million people, about eleven percent
35:23
Speaker 3: of the state relies on SNAP. Every stolen or unlawfully
35:28
Speaker 3: claimed dollar robs a citizen family in genuine need. And
35:32
Speaker 3: according to the CBO, about two hundred thousand illegal aliens
35:37
Speaker 3: from the surge of alien asylum seekers from twenty twenty
35:40
Speaker 3: three to twenty twenty four already received SNAP, growing to
35:45
Speaker 3: eight hundred thousand by twenty thirty four, assuming no deportations.
35:50
Speaker 3: A ten year cost. You said this cost millions. Yeah,
35:53
Speaker 3: the ten year cost is fifteen billion dollars. And so
35:58
Speaker 3: this bill is to target that and say, if you're
36:00
Speaker 3: here illegally, you do not have any entitlement to public welfare.
36:04
Speaker 3: And if you access fraudulently access public welfare, that is
36:08
Speaker 3: yet another ground to deport you.
36:10
Speaker 1: Now, Chuck Schumer is a co sponsor this bill.
36:12
Speaker 3: Right, no, And I feel confident that Schumer is not
36:18
Speaker 3: just to know he's a hell no, because today's Democrat party,
36:21
Speaker 3: it is all for giant health insurance corporations. It is
36:24
Speaker 3: all for illegal immigrants, it is all for violent criminals,
36:28
Speaker 3: it is all for men and women's sports. It's all
36:32
Speaker 3: for everyone except the average American citizen trying to work
36:35
Speaker 3: hard and provide for his or her family.
36:38
Speaker 4: And that's exactly backwards.
36:40
Speaker 1: It's incredible.
36:41
Speaker 2: Well, as we're doing the show right now at ten
36:43
Speaker 2: forty at night on Sunday evening, the government's still shut down,
36:46
Speaker 2: you're still being held hostage. We're moving in the right direction.
36:49
Speaker 2: Democrats could drag this out even till Friday, just to
36:53
Speaker 2: hurt you. If you're traveling this week, you're not alone,
36:56
Speaker 2: Sender Kruz and I are traveling with you.
36:58
Speaker 1: It's gonna suck. That's just the best way I can
36:59
Speaker 1: describe it.
37:00
Speaker 2: But at least hopefully will be safe while doing it
37:02
Speaker 2: Center and I will see you back here when the
37:05
Speaker 2: government hopefully reopens. So we'll be doing a show on Wednesday,
37:08
Speaker 2: So hit that subscriber auto download button and grab my podcast,
37:12
Speaker 2: the Ben Ferguson Podcasts on those in between days. I
37:15
Speaker 2: will keep you up to date with whatever is happening.
37:17
Speaker 2: I can promise you that, and we'll see you back here.
37:19
Speaker 1: In a couple of days